Within The Dome
by Iamawesomedogtoo
Summary: Even if it's his head creating delusions, hoping to grasp that his savior is the link to past and present, Jellal swears that the red haired girl with a kind smile locked deep within his memories is the one that freed him from his imprisonment.
1. Within The Dome

"Pull yourself together," Jellal muttered. "This extremely weird and crazy situation is just a really bad dream." He paused. "Wow. I must be going insane. I sound like Lucy." Jellal couldn't help thinking about how he was like a princess, though, trapped in a tower. Except, he was a prince, and he was trapped in the center of a dome.

Apparently, domes had better security.

Jellal replay what happened in the past 24 hours. Getting your kingdom taken over? Check. Getting trapped in a dome by a psycho time witch? Also check. Can this day go any better? Maybe a prince will save him, they'll kiss, and he'll live happily ever after…

"You're still straight, Jellal, you're still straight."

Jellal had long given up on escaping this prison. It's just a waste of time and energy. People in his situation may have thought 'Hey! Let's think rationally, and maybe we'll find a way out!' Jellal had thought rationally. It just isn't happening.

And that's why, he decided to do something productive. Talking to himself. Because there was literally nothing in that dome other than him. And air. Which he didn't count.

"I wonder… maybe I can use my clothes to make a makeshift ladder and climb through one of the holes on the roof…"

Jellal was horrified at what he'd become. He really was, deep inside. Who wouldn't be when you're reduced to talking to yourself and making mental delusions? He sighed. This really was not good for his mental wellbeing. And how is he supposed to get food? Food…

"I'm going to die!" Jellal panicked. "I'm not ready to die! I still have a lot of things to do! I have to free the Star kingdom! A-and… I just can't die! I can't!" Maybe someone had heard him, and maybe this was the answer, because at that moment, someone came.

She was a red haired beauty. Actually, the word beauty was an understatement. Maybe gorgeous? She looked even prettier with her hair flying in the wind and sunlight striking her face. Jellal could have sworn he saw silver wings on her back. He blinked. Nope, she was real. And then he passed out.

"Greetings," was the first thing Jellal heard when he woke up. He started to remember what happened before he passed out.

"Wait a minute… you're a girl!" Jellal exclaimed.

"Was it not obvious?" asked the red haired girl. Upon closer inspection, Jellal realized it was scarlet.

"It was. I just couldn't process it, that's all." Could she have been a princess of an allying kingdom? That seemed right, with her formal way of speaking and her refined posture. Actually, she seemed more like a knight, or maybe a samurai.

Definitely a samurai.

"You must be wondering who I am and why I am here." _'Is she a mind reader?'_ "I can assure you I mean no harm to you. I am merely here to aid you in escape." The girl bowed on one knee.

"I am Erza. I have vowed to eliminate the Balam alliance, and I will stop any and all of their plans. I have trained endlessly in preparation."

"I am extremely confused," Jellal said.

"Apologies. Please hit me in retribution," Erza said.

"Um, no thanks, it's fine."

"If you are so sure, I do not doubt you. However, do you possess any information on the Balam alliance?"

' _Balam Alliance sounds familiar…'_

"There was a witch who kidnapped me. She had black hair and magenta eyes. She also had time powers of sorts. She could have been in this Balam Alliance."

Jellal carefully studied Erza's facial expression. She appeared to be in deep thought, and then, confused. In a split second, all emotion was wiped from her face, and her eyes became emotionless.

"How would I be sure you are speaking the truth?" Erza asked. "For all I know, you could be someone from the Balam alliance attempting to collect information or searching for possible threats by pretending to be a victim."

How rude. He had more dignity than that.

"You must have been living under a rock your entire life," Jellal said. "Or maybe, you couldn't speculate it because you have never seen me before. I am Prince Jellal Fernandes."

He said it proud and tall. He was a prince. A great prince at that. Yes, Jellal thought he was being a bit arrogant, but still. He had the right to be. He was the prince of the Star Kingdom, the greatest kingdom alive. Everyone from lands near and far heard of him. Who wouldn't, with the millions of news shows interviewing him? Heck, he was even bigger than a celebrity.

But that confused look on Erza's face did not go away.

"Is that what you call yourself?" Erza asked. "You seem to be extremely arrogant, I see." Jellal swore his jaw hit the floor at that moment. Maybe she thought he was another Jellal Fernandes. Maybe she thought Jellal isn't even his real name. He needed to clarify things…

"I am Jellal Fernandes, prince of the Star Kingdom. In fact, I have a tattoo birthmark. This is proof." Jellal pointed to his right eye.

There was confusion on Erza's face. Then disbelief. Jellal knew he hit the mark (and not the birthmark).

"But the Star Kingdom was eradicated!" Erza exclaimed.

Or maybe he didn't hit the mark.

"Listen," Jellal said. He felt like a teacher explaining a concept to a child. "Even though the Kingdom was destroyed, I was a prince before that. This is enough evidence to prove I'm not in the Balam Alliance." Erza opened her mouth to speak again. Jellal wondered if she understood now.

"The last royalty of the Star Kingdom was Hisui E Fiore. She died protecting the last of the kingdom's inhabitants." Jellal's eyes widened.

"Hisui… she's dead? I've only been here for 18 hours. How?"

"Do you have some sort of affiliation with Fiore?"

"She's one of my sisters. The other two are Lucy Heartfillia and Yukino Agria." Erza was still confused, but she managed to shoot him a look of pity.

"Condolences." And then her eyes lit up, as if she had some sort of idea or realization. She reached out to grab Jellal. Jellal, who was suddenly reluctant. "Now let us see outside."

But did he want to? Did he really and truly want to? Jellal started thinking about it.

Who knew what waste lay around him, him who was right in the center of the Star Kingdom. Jellal shuddered, thinking about the corpses he'd seen during battles and virtually how useless he'd been…

And the waste. The destruction. Seeing his beautiful country torn into pieces… would he be able to handle it?

Jellal followed Erza.

"You should stand here while I make an exit," Erza said. Jellal blanched. Make an exit?

Erza slashed with millions of wheel from seemingly nowhere, and the wall collapsed. Along with Jellal's eyes.

"That's not possible. It's not real. W-what happened? Why does outside look like that?" Dread filled Jellal as Erza stared straight into his eyes.

"Jellal Fernandes, it is April, X791."

He remembered someone say those same exact words to him 400 years ago.


	2. Within The Mind

Jellal never really took the time to look at Erza's eyes. Sure, he'd stare at them and try to read them, but he never looked at the eyes itself. Or the kindness they held in them. Were they always like that? But Erza's sudden statement brought him to a complete shock.

"Erza, were you kidding when you said it was X791?" Jellal asked.

"I know nothing of this kidding thing," Erza said seriously. Jellal blanched. That was a joke, right? Right?

Then why would the world look so different? Why would the sky be blue and why would there be those… those green _things_?

"Erza, are those green things _safe_?" Jellal asked. Erza nodded.

"Yes, those green _things_ known as tree are completely safe." Of course trees would be safe. But why were they GREEN?

"They must have locked you in here longer than I thought," Erza said. "Either you lived so long ago that trees weren't around, or you've been in there so long that you forgot about trees."

"Let's go with the first option," Jellal suggested. He was a little scared. Erza sound completely serious, like she actually believed both of the possibilities could be true. He had never met someone like that. Then again, how many people has he met?

"Now I must plan what I shall do with you now that I've rescued you," Erza said.

"What you'll do with me?" Jellal sounded relatively calm, but inside, he was scared. What if it was an execution? No, wait, she wouldn't have saved him if it was an execution. A random thought popped into his mind. Or, not really random. It was probably running through every teenage boy's head right now. Was he still a teenager? Jellal tried to block out the weird thoughts.

"Someone's thinking dirty." Erza looked genuinely confused, but Jellal mustered a neutral expression.

Where did that voice come from?

"Oh, you're probably confused right now. I'm Mavis and my voice is coming from the device Erza is holding." Jellal looked at Erza's hands, and sure enough, there was a device. Jellal inspected it closer and saw the face of a pale-blonde haired girl with light skin and large, emerald eyes.

"How are you in the device?" Jellal asked.

"This is called a phone. This phone contains a special application that allows Fairy Tail members to communicate. Fairy Tail is a group I am currently in. Mavis is the leader. She is currently working on hacking base 32." All the information was making Jellal's head spin. What does Fairy Tail do? What is hacking? What's base 32?

"Base 32 is one of the remaining bases of the Balam Alliance," Mavis explained. "Fairy Tail's mission is to eliminate the Balam Alliance. Hacking is when you infiltrate computers."

"Is everyone in your time mind readers?" Jellal asked.

"Nope!"

"So, I have done as you instructed. What shall we do with him? This is the first base to contain people, and Jellal seems to have come from another time."

"May I decide where I should go?" Jellal asked.

"Apologies. I never thought you might have wanted to go somewhere specific," Erza apologized.

"Actually, I don't know much about the planet anymore, so…"

"Erza, you go with him." The two of them turned to stare at Mavis.

"He doesn't know much about what's going on right now, so you can explain everything to him while you drop him off at Magnolia. It's the safest place in the continent of Ishgar. After that, he can learn the rest on his own."

"But what about attacking base 189?" Erza asked.

"You're going to need to deliver ammunition from Hargeon to Bisca on your way, and Magnolia and Hargeon are not too far away." _You're side tracking Erza. Don't be useless like you were during the battle._

"It's alright. I'll go my separate way right now. There's no need to trouble any of you." Jellal started walking towards the greenery.

"Actually," Erza said. "I'm going to do it."

"My battery's running out," Mavis said. "I have to cut off the connection for a while since I left my charger at home. Bye bye." Erza shut off the phone and started walking next to Jellal in silence.

"You know," Jellal said. "You don't have to."

"I insist," Erza declared.

"Well, okay then." The two continued to walk in an awkward silence. Jellal watched as Erza stared at the ground.

"Can you please not stare at me?" Erza asked.

"Sorry," Jellal said. There was even more awkwardness. Jellal could have sworn the awkwardness was smacking him on the head right now. "I-"

Funny, everything that can happen in a split second. It's tail hit his head and it's leg hit his stomach, but he didn't even see it. Who knows how much more damage it would have done if Erza hadn't stepped in. Jellal was amazed at the fact that it actually had more speed than the time witch. But, the time witch would have fixed that up. It's not like she was lounging around in a dome for 400 years…

"Be on guard at all times," Erza said. "The woods are dangerous."

"How did you hit it when it's so fast?" Jellal asked.

"Flight armor," Erza said. "I requiped."

"Requiped?" Jellal asked.

"It's a magic that switched the clothes or weapons of a person. Usually, a person can only switch out one item at a time, but I posses the skill of being the only one in Fiore to be able to do a full body requip." Jellal was impressed.

"I have a question: isn't Fiore Hisui's last name?" Jellal asked. Erza nodded.

"Actually, it was because of her that the country is named that. The survivors she protected were the founders of this country. They decided to name it in honor of her. So far, we've managed to recover most of the continent of Ishgar from the Balam Alliance's grasp." Erza looked out at the sky.

"We should set up camp right now." No other words were spoken as the two set up the camping equipment (which Erza pulled from an alternative dimension).

"Do I have magic?"

The question was sudden, so Jellal was surprised when Erza gave him an immediate answer.

"I don't know. The only way you could have survived in that dome was if you had Ethernano within your body. However, if you did, then you would have been able to escape easily. On the other hand, your magic can be holder type or you might have a spell or potion that blocks your magic affecting you right now. All I can say is, if you did, then it's something neither I nor the hidden detection machine recognize."

Erza must have been thinking about this a lot.

"Maybe because it's an ancient spell," Jellal said.

"Are you implying that you have some sort of knowledge about the reason for your inability to use magic?" Erza asked.

"Most likely. In the oldest memory I can remember- and I can't even remember my age back then- there was this old man who told me something weird. He muttered something that sounded like sumigretxe airomem. After that, he apologized." Erza's eyes lit up, like she knew something.

"That spell sounds really familiar." Jellal stared at her hopefully, but Erza drew a blank.

"I apologize. Every time I try to remember what that spell is, my mind restarts my progress." Jellal sighed, hope lost.

"It's ok. I understand. Situations like this have happened to me more than once." Erza nodded and then started up a fire. Jellal decided to do something useful when he realized there was only one tent.

"Um, Erza," Jellal pointed to the tent.

"What's the problem?" Erza asked.

"There's only one tent." Erza stared at him.

"Your point?"

"Does this mean we have to sleep in the same tent?"

"That is what you're worried about?" Erza deadpanned.

"I'm a boy and you're a girl," Jellal said.

"We're not going to do anything. And if you still find a problem with it-"

At that moment, a four legged creature conveniently flew out of nowhere only to get chopped by Erza's sword.

"Looks like I found dinner," Erza said. She stared at Jellal's horror-stricken face.

"You most likely got the wrong idea. I was going to say that if you find a problem with it, I could just go outside. The tent has more protection, and you won't get attacked."

Jellal felt irritation rise within him. He wasn't just a kid. He can take care of himself. Erza didn't need to take pity on him.

And what about Erza? Erza was risking her own life for him. She could have told _him_ to be the one outside, but she insisted that he stays in the tent. She was showing kindness to a stranger.

The irritation was replaced with understanding and admiration.

"You should eat," Erza said. She lifted up a stick filled with grilled meat.

"Erza, are you sure that thing is edible?" Jellal asked.

"If it wasn't edible, would I still be alive?"

"Good point." Erza handed him the stick.

"I will rest," Erza said. She fluffed her pillow and fell asleep. Jellal turned to the meat. He stared at it.

It looked nowhere near edible.

The meat was slimy and a gross shade of green. It was hard and chunky. Jellal's stomach was doing somersaults trying to escape from the thing. How Erza managed to eat one bite was beyond him.

Jellal dropped the food.

He would train. He would get stronger. He'd save what's left of the Star Kingdom.

But it wasn't that easy.

Jellal examined the tree that he'd pulled punches at for some time. It looked like barely a scratch was made. He sighed.

Why attack the tree? It never did anything. The tree's innocent. You started a fight. Trees are living creatures.

Jellal decided to train against a rock.

Which was much worse. Jellal swore rocks were the epitome of evil itself. When he punched a boulder, the thing ended up severely injuring his hand and released dust in his face. Plus, it didn't move an inch. The rock was taunting him, telling him that he can never be anything but a weakling. He punched harder, but to no avail.

 _Crunch._

It was in the night when they attacked their prey.

 _Crunch._

When they know the prey is defenseless.

 _Crunch._

When they know the prey is weak.

 _Crunch._

Jellal felt a presence behind him. It wasn't the strongest of presences. He barely felt it. But he felt it's motives.

"Wake up, Erza!" Jellal yelled. Erza kept snoring.

"Wake up!" She didn't move a muscle or twitch in the slightest.

"Erza?" Fear crept into Jellal's mind. Is Erza… could Erza be…?

No, Erza isn't dead. She's breathing.

" _One is weak. The other one is disabled. There's no escape."_

"I thought it was strange that she didn't wake up through my training," Jellal said. "It must have been because of the meat." He pulled out his fists, but the creature ran straight past him and towards Erza.

"You're target's over here!" Jellal yelled.

" _Pathetic human. Like I would even dream of eating you, weakling."_

Jellal's eyes widened. He was in real trouble now. The only person who could fight the monster was incapacitated. And Erza- Erza doesn't deserve this. It was his fault. All his fault.

Jellal had never hated himself as much as he did at that moment.

"I'm no weakling," Jellal said. "Not weak like you, who's reduced to using dirty tricks just to kill other people." He struck a blow with his fist.

" _If you think a single punch will defeat me, then I'll commend you on your stupidity."_

The beast and Jellal exchanged blows every second, neither knowing who'll strike where next. Jellal could feel fatigue, pulling him towards the ground.

 _Rest._

But fatigue was just one part of his mind. The brain was a complicated structure with many, many parts, and fatigue was simply one of those. Jellal had his heart.

That was all he needed to fight on.

"You're the stupid one," Jellal said. "You've laid yourself straight into a trap."

In the split second that the creature was distracted, Jellal plunged Erza's sword straight through its midsection.

"I forgot to mention that the trap was to distract you," he said.

Who knows why. Jellal sure didn't. Then again, maybe it was because his mind was muddled, but the dark dots he saw grew larger and larger until all he could see was black. The same blackness as the dome.

But it wasn't the same. There was nothing about it that was the same from before. This blackness was deep. It filled him with hope. He had control over it, knowing light was just one motion away, if he'd just open his eyes…

He could escape.

Jellal closed his eyes and let his fatigue wash over him.


	3. Within The Forest

Jellal did not get the best of wake up calls.

Unless you consider being whacked on the head your ideal alarm.

"Wake up, we have to keep moving," Erza said.

Jellal didn't exactly feel like moving, with his fatigue and hunger and all.

"I'm tired," Jellal said.

But there was no defying Erza.

"Get. Up," Erza said with a threatening glare, and Jellal immediately shot to his feet.

"Here's breakfast. Eat it while on the move. If we travel far enough, we can reach Magnolia in one day," Erza said.

Jellal took one look at the thing known as breakfast and knew: he couldn't keep it in his stomach for long.

Then again, he was going to die of starvation if he didn't eat it.

"By the way, what happened while I was asleep?" Erza asked.

When Erza was asleep?

"How exactly did you know something happened when you were asleep?" Jellal asked. Erza pointed to his hand.

"They seem to be scratched up."

Oh. Well that was obvious. He needed to stop thinking of her as a mind reader.

"I think something in the meat you ate made you stay asleep, so I had to fight off the creature that attacked you," Jellal said with a hint of pride in his voice.

"Looks like you were more powerful than I thought," Erza said. "Describe the creature."

Jellal didn't really think he got a good look at the creature. He wasn't sure what it looked like, but he thought he saw a wisp of green, and he did think it was shadow-like.

Jellal reported these findings to Erza.

"Green… shadow-like… what you saw was most likely a Fragment, one of the shadowed remains of a powerful beast that failed to pass away. The weaker than usual wizards can dispel them easily, and they are often used as training practice by non-mages." Jellal's mood immediately deflated.

"O-oh, is that so?"

"Was it something I said?" Erza thought aloud to herself.

Well, Jellal can completely shatter that mind reader image now. Wait, what if her mind reader powers switched to him? Maybe Erza didn't say what she just said but was thinking it.

No, Jellal was pretty sure Erza was never a mind reader to begin with.

But still.

"Wait here, I think I just saw something," Erza said as she ran off North East.

And then requiped into flight armor.

"What are you doing?!" Jellal asked/ yelled, but he didn't get a reply. He squinted his eyes.

Was she chasing after a fish?

"Is that a fish?" Jellal asked.

Apparently, that really ticked the fish off.

"WHO'RE YA CALLIN A FISH?!" It screeched as it hurled towards him. "I AIN'T NOTHIN LIKE GRAY!"

"You have poor eye sight," Erza said as she ran toward him to catch up with the fish. "That is a dragon."

Now that the thing got closer, it did look lizard-like.

But also, now that the thing got closer, it was going to kill him.

"FIRE DRAGON-" Midway through casting a spell, it turned into a pink-haired guy and passed out.

"I can't believe even dragons have limited magic power," Erza said, amazed.

Jellal was just traumatized.

First that thing started flying towards him top speed and then it was going to burn him but it suddenly changed form. Scary.

"I know we have to restrain him because he keeps throwing punches in his sleep, but," Jellal pointed to the _many_ swords stationed around the dragon. "Isn't that overkill?"

"He's a dragon," Erza said.

"But he's in human form."

"He's a dragon."

Jellal had a feeling if he brought up more points, this would go nowhere. The poor dragon (who just tried to kill him) was going to have to deal with it.

Quicker than Jellal thought.

"Shoot!" it yelled, quickly sitting up. It noticed the swords around it.

"Fire dragon roar!" Nothing happened. "I _said_ FIRE DRAGON ROAR!" Frustrated, it made a fist. "Fine! I'm just gonna have ta _smash_ through these swords!"

"No, you idiot! You're going to cut your hand if you do that!" Jellal yelled.

"Who're ya calling an idiot?"

"I'm calling you an idiot, idiot!"

"You two stop fighting," Erza said angrily.

"Well I don't wanna!"

Jellal silently watched in horror as Erza beat the poor dragon up. Actually, now that he thought about it, it would have been better for the dragon to try to smash through the swords.

"Alright, I shall get straight to the point. We would like to hire you," Erza said to the dragon.

"I ain't doing it."

"You could have at least listened to what she was talking about!" Jellal exclaimed.

"We, the Fairy Tail organization, are aiming to eliminate the Balam alliance. So far, we've hacked 62 bases, not in numerical order. We can really use the strength of a dragon to destroy more bases, so will you join us?" Erza asked.

It seemed a thought just popped up in the dumb creature's head. Probably the only one in a while. Wait, was that even possible? Jellal heard your brain cells die if you don't think for long periods of time. Could that be it?

It was an endless cycle, Jellal realized in horror. The dragon didn't think for a while, so some of his brain cells died, which made him unable to think, which made more brain cells dead. If this continued then his head would have been totally empty. But because Erza made that statement, the dragon had a thought and the chain was broken.

"I'm only doing it under one condition: that all of my friends travel with me."

"That condition is acceptable," Erza said. "Alright, then, bring your friends."

"Ok, then, get on my back," said the dragon. "I'm Natsu Dragneel."

"You're name is totally irrelevant," Jellal said.

"Be nice," Erza said… threateningly?

In the vast land, there was a glowing light as they had all landed and the majestic friends had appeared.

That is not what happened.

"Hey, flame brain!" yelled a dark haired guy from below.

"Shut up, ice breath!"

"Is that your friend?" Erza asked.

"Gray? No way! He just tags along with me!"

"What's that supposed to mean? And who'd tag along with the likes of you?"

"Obviously stupid strippers!"

"So is he coming with us or not?" Erza asked, getting impatient.

"Well, who else am I supposed to punch every day?"

"Alright then, Gray. Get on," Erza said.

"Only cause I'm taking pity on you," Gray said to Natsu.

"Alright, now we can take down that base! I'm all fired up!" Natsu exclaimed.

"Already? And why are we taking down the base that you mentioned?" Jellal asked.

"Because one of my friends is in it, and if we wanna travel together, she's gotta get out."

A she. In a base. Maybe it was one of his sisters.

Erza seemed to be thinking the same thing because she looked to him and nodded.

"FIRE DRAGON ROAR!" Natsu blasted fire at the base (that was actually right next to them) about three times before he started panting and landed. Then he transformed into human form.

"I'm outta power," Natsu said.

"So we're going to get her out? Count me in," Gray said as he blasted the building with ice.

"Alright. Since it is necessary to meet the conditions and this is a base, I will attack. Heaven's wheel!"

Now that Jellal thought about it, Natsu tricked them. He probably set the condition to get his friend out of the base. Looks like he was more clever than Jellal thought.

A crack formed on the wall before it crumbled.

"It appears that constant attack on the building made it weaker, so it crumbled," Erza said.

Someone lay huddled in the center of the building, shivering. Jellal recognized her blonde hair. Before he could get to her, however, someone else already had.

"Lucy!" Natsu yelled.

"So you're Natsu," she said. "I-it's been dark in here for so long. I thought I'd never see again."

"You're my friend! Why the hell'd ya think I'd let ya stay in here?" Natsu asked.

"W-we've only k-known each other for days and you saved me. I-I-" Lucy started to cry before she fell asleep.

"So this is your other friend," Erza said. "She seems nice."

"Trust me," Jellal said. "Lucy's usually not like this."

"She's got one hell of a kick," Gray said. "Whenever one of us ticked her off, she'd kick the wall. I think the reason why we were able to break it was because she kicked it so much."

Something was bothering Jellal. Something about Gray. Maybe it was… because he was naked.

"Gray, put some clothes on," Erza said. "This is not a strip club."

Gray was gawking at her.

"Told ya he's a stripper!" Natsu exclaimed.

"It's a habit!"

"Excuses, excuses."

"Stop fighting. We've got to assign you guys to units," Erza said.

"Units?" Natsu and Gray simultaneously asked.

"Traveling units."

"No way!" Natsu said.

"Then you want to start your own units?"

"Nuh ah! I already told you didn't I? I wanna travel with my friends."

"You're all going to be assigned in the same unit," Erza said.

"No, we're in your unit. You two are my friends too!"

Jellal was touched. The guy just met them and they already formed a strong bond. Not to mention they tried to kill each other a few hours ago…

Wait, so where are they right now?

"Question: how far is Magnolia?" Jellal asked.

"Magnolia? _Very_ far," Gray said.

"That's fine. We'll just have Natsu fly us there," Erza said.

"Yeah, but that stupid dragon can't spend too much time in dragon form. He used up all his magic power and now we're stranded."

"Who're ya callin stupid?"

"I don't talk to deaf people because I know they can't hear me."

"Does it look like I'm deaf?"

"Sure seems like it!"

"Stop. Fighting. Now," Erza said, _extremely_ angry. "We will walk to the nearest town and there is no stopping."

"Alright. I'll carry Lucy," Natsu said.

"No, I'll carry her. I'm her brother."

"I'm her friend."

"I'm her brother _and_ friend."

"You're cheating!"

"Just saying the truth."

"Neither of you shall carry her because _I_ will," Erza said. "I've taken a liking to this girl."

As the two watched Erza carry Lucy princess style, someone sighed.

"You two got beat by a girl."

"IT'S A CAT! THAT CAT IS TALKING! THAT _BLUE_ CAT IS F*CKING TALKING!"


	4. Within The Town

"I'm a yakisoba!" Natsu exclaimed.

"No, you're a plain pack of noodles," Gray said.

"Well at least I ain't ramen," Natsu said.

"What's wrong with ramen?"

" _Instant_ maruchan ramen."

"Hell no!" Gray started panicking. "Did I really turn into a cheap pack of 2 jewel ramen?"

"I'm sorry," Jellal said, confirming Gray's fears. "You are indeed a pack of 2 jewel ramen."

"Are you just being melodramatic to rub it in my face or because you truly feel sorry for me?"

"No duh, he's sayin it ta rub it in your face!"

"No one asked you," Gray and Jellal said at the same time.

"Lushi! Help! I don't know what type of noodles I am!" Happy cried.

"Okay, just what exactly happened, why is everyone except me a pack of noodles, and why has Erza been standing in the same position for the past 20 minutes? I get that she's ravioli and the rest of you are noodles, but still."

"All right, we don't exactly know the _entire_ reason we're like this, but here's the full explanation," Jellal said.

 **More than 21 minutes ago because no one was counting**

"Where am I?" Lucy asked with a groggy voice as she woke up.

"We're on the edge of the forest border," Erza said.

"Forest border?"

"There is a village nearby, but last time I went there, it was deserted. I don't think it's like it was before, though, because they apparently discovered some new dissolvable magic gem and now everyone is moving in," Gray explained.

"Ya only know all this cause you've got the chance to go outside, unlike me," Natsu said. Jellal was probably sure he wanted to give some helpful info too. But… what did he mean by got the chance to go outside?

"What do you mean by-" Jellal stopped talking when Gray started shaking his head. Jellal nodded in understanding.

"Natsu had a sad past. He lived in a cave with his dad Igneel, but Igneel left him behind. He met Gray, who's family, village, friends, and mentor was wiped out by Deliora. Since they were both orphans, they decided to stick together for survival," Happy said.

Well, someone didn't read the mood.

"You two never told me about your pasts," Lucy said.

"We have reached the village," Erza said, interrupting the conversation.

"Alright, can we get some food now? I've been trying to deal with nausea for these past few days every time I eat something, and I would like to eat something delicious," Jellal said.

"Food!" Natsu exclaimed.

"No way. I'm sweaty and gross and so is everyone else. What we need is a shower," Lucy said.

"Cheesecake. Strawberry cheese cake," Erza muttered.

"Fish," Happy said.

"All of you, stop drooling!" Lucy yelled.

"There's no point, Lucy. You can never break through the barrier that they have created for themselves. They will stop at nothing to achieve their desires," Gray said.

"So basically what you're saying is that they have no self control when it comes to food?" Lucy asked.

"We must bite it. We must," said the four who were drooling. Actually, now there was saliva coming out of every side of their mouths.

"Is it just me or do they look like they have rabies?" Lucy asked.

"We have to calmly deal with this. I'll lead the pack to a restaurant and you go take a shower," Gray said.

"The pack? U-um, okay."

 **A few minutes after that**

There was something strange about the people around here. Their eyes looked dead. That was the only way to describe it. Dead.

"Welcome to our noodles shop! Our noodles come in any and all flavors!" said the counter lady.

"We'll order the regular ramen, the yakisoba deluxe meal, the fish noodles, spaghetti, and the special ravioli cake flavored desert treat," Gray said.

Jellal noticed how everything everyone wanted was conveniently placed in the same location.

"Alright, that will be 300 jewels," said the counter lady.

"Only 300?" Jellal asked.

"Well, we are saving a lot, so here," Erza said, handing the money.

Their food arrived immediately, so they started eating.

"Oh," said the counter lady. "Just remember this: what you eat is what you are."

 **A few more minutes afterwards, when they reunited with Lucy**

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii," said Jellal. "I don't feeeeeeel so gooooooood."

"We must preeeeeess forwaaard," Erza muttered.

"My stomaaaach is fiiiiinally eating iiiiiitself," Natsu said.

"All of you are shrinking," Lucy said. "And somehow changing colors. Except for Happy."

"Luuuuuuuuushiiiii, I feel like a fiiiiiiiish," Happy said.

"Happy, you looooook like a wiing fish," Gray said.

"Alright, I'm just going to pinch myself and see if this is real or not," Lucy said. So she did.

Except she pinched a pressure point and passed out.

"Noooooo, we're doomed!"

 **And so, a few minutes later, we return to the present situation**

"I'll go into town and find a way to change you all back. The rest of you, stay put," Lucy said strategically.

"What's a town?"

This was bad. Their minds were completely turning into noodles.

Lucy quickly dashed past the forest border and into the town, but she swore she saw a blur in the distance. After a while of running around, she came to a realization.

"Wait a minute! If I keep running around, then nothing's going to happen." Noticing the awkward stares from people around her, Lucy remembered it was a bad thing to talk to herself. Years of talking to herself had pretty much made it a habit for her. She decided to find the root of the problem first: the noodle joint.

Except she didn't know which noodle joint they went to.

Although she realized it was extremely rude opening the door to a store and not buying anything, she decided she'd have to make this sacrifice for the greater good. Unfortunately, she couldn't tell which store was which because almost all of them looked identical and they had no signs.

How convenient.

As Lucy kept opening door after door, she suddenly bumped into someone, causing them to collide heads and fall on the floor.

"Ouch," said the person Lucy had just bumped. "My head hurts."

"Sorry," Lucy apologized. There was something about this person, though… something familiar.

"Hey, your hair is the color of that blob I saw!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Are you calling me a blob?" asked the girl she was talking to.

"No, it's just that your hair reminded me of something." Lucy looked down to get the thing that this girl was carrying before she noticed it was a book. She squealed.

"You like books?" asked the girl. Lucy nodded. "I do too!"

Upon closer inspection, the girl appeared to be very cute. She didn't seem that tall (though Lucy herself wasn't very tall either), and she had large, sparkling chestnut colored eyes. She also had short and curly bright blue hair held back by a back by a bandana.

"I wanna write my own novel," Lucy said, excited because there was finally someone she could talk about books to.

"What's stopping you?" asked the girl.

"The thing is, I-" Lucy remembered something that Erza told her personally.

" _I suggest you don't say a word about this base thing. There must be a reason you were placed in this base, and if the Balam alliance discovers that you were let out, bad things may happen."_

"It's nothing," Lucy said, her mood deflating.

"Is something wrong?" asked the girl.

"No," Lucy said.

"Well, when you're done with your story, can I read it?" The girl asked. Then she face palmed. "Wait, you don't even know my name. Sorry, I'm Levy."

"I'm Lucy," Lucy replied.

"Let's exchange numbers!" said Levy as she held out her phone.

"Numbers?"

"Yeah, cell phone numbers." Lucy racked her brain, trying to think about how she should say that she doesn't have one.

"I'm not from around here," Lucy said. "I don't have a cell phone."

"Oh. Well, wherever you're from, I hope they'll start selling phones. You can read anything via e-book."

"There are books on the internet?!" Lucy exclaimed.

"You didn't know?!" Levy exclaimed, shocked. Then Lucy remembered something.

"Oh, sorry, I have to go. It's an emergency," Lucy said.

"Alright, bye!"

As Lucy got ready to dash, she noticed one of Levy's books.

 _Magic nullification: secret techniques_

"Hey, wait, are you a mage?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah," Levy said. It was strange that she got a book on magic nullification, unless…

"Levy, did one of your friends get turned into an object?" Lucy asked.

"How did you know?" Levy asked, surprised. This really wasn't something foreigners should know (not that there was anything wrong with it, but the state of the city isn't exactly common knowledge).

"The same thing happened to my friends," Lucy said.

"Maybe we can help each other," Levy suggested. Lucy nodded.

"So what do you think is causing it?" she asked. Levy solemnly put her head down.

"I know what's causing this."

Levy was supposed to look cheerful, not depressed. Where did the sparkling chestnut eyes go?

"There's a group working under the Balam Alliance's order known as Phantom Lord. They're highly trained and have a special purpose: to eradicate Fairy Tail. Their many branches are situated throughout the cities of Fiore, and maybe even all of Ishgar. For some reason, they thought we knew important information about Fairy Tail, so they came over here to interrogate us. We told them we don't know anything, but they didn't listen. Now, phantom lord is doing their best to get the information by making us miserable."

"Well, _do_ you know anything about Fairy Tail?" Lucy asked.

"Even if we did, none of us would actually tell them. I actually want to join them, even if they're corrupt. Can't be worse than the government."

Lucy, naïve little Lucy, who had no idea about the excessive use of sarcasm in the modern society, decided to reveal that she was in fact a member of Fairy Tail.

"I'm in Fairy Tail," Lucy said.

"Lu chan, please don't joke about these things," Levy said.

"I'm not joking; it's true," Lucy said, pulling out her identification card.

Levy's eyes widened to about the size of a saucer before she grabbed Lucy and ducked next to a box.

"There are security cameras at every corner of the street," Levy explained. "They can't hear us, but hope that they didn't see that ID."

Lucy quickly put away her ID.

"That's strange; you don't have any talons or horns," Levy said, observing Lucy carefully. "But then again, your chest is monstrous."

Just what did she think Fairy Tail was?

"Um, Levy chan, Fairy Tail isn't a demon cult," Lucy said.

"I know; Fairy Tail is made of succubae, right?"

Lucy internally sweat dropped.

"No, we're just humans."

"But someone told me that Fairy Tail was made of evil succubae that want to take over this world and make it their personal feeding ground!" Levy exclaimed.

"What you heard was most likely an over exaggerated rumor."

"B-but the mayor told me!"

"Levy chan," Lucy said, gripping Levy's shoulders and giving her a look of sympathy. "Everything you know is a lie."

"Hi!"

Levy and Lucy were shrieking at the top of their lungs now.

"We weren't talking about anything shady or suspicious or anything!" Lucy and Levy yelled simultaneously.

"Alright. Do you want to come over to the bar next door? I noticed you two were exhausted."

The barmaid was very pretty, with glittery blue eyes and beautiful, silver hair. She had silky smooth skin, and perfect teeth, and… was there anything _not_ perfect about her?

The barmaid noticed the two staring at her in awe.

"Well, if you sit behind that box the entire time, I'm sure phantom lord will be suspicious. They moved the camera a minute ago, so you'll be caught."

And so to the bar they went.

The days seemed ever so short; they got even shorter by the hour, and not an hour shorter.

Why won't it stop already?

The door jingled as Mirajane and two other girls entered the bar.

The first thing Lucy noticed was a handsome boy with messy ginger hair, untidy glasses, dark brown eyes, and a green leather jacket. It seemed like their eyes met for a long moment before he looked at the counter.

"You're not gonna hit on her?" Mira asked.

Okay, who asks someone to hit on someone they just met?

"Fine," said the boy. He turned to Levy and said in a monotone voice "Hi. When you walked through the door, I saw sparkles." Afterwards, he dropped his head onto the counter.

Now, Lucy was personally offended. There wasn't anything wrong with Levy, but the guy seemed to avoid her.

"Hey," Lucy said. "Are you _ignoring_ me?"

"Mira, you knew she was a celestial mage, so why did you bring her?" he asked, totally ignoring Lucy.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Mira said, her eyes sparkling mischievously.

Alright. He was definitely avoiding her.

"Talk about me to my face, why don't you!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Lu chan, calm down," Levy said.

Lucy was far from calm. She was p*ssed.

"She's like all the other celestial mages," said the boy. "May I get another glass?"

"He isn't usually like this," Mira said. "Something suddenly changed him. I want to find out what it is, but I just can't figure it out."

"Maybe it's something related to celestial mages," Levy said.

"Who cares what it is," Lucy said grumpily as she took one of the drinks off Mira's tray. "It's not like I did anything to _him_."

"Anyways," Mira said. "I think that he might be able to help you two with your friend into inanimate object problem. I heard there was an elixir in the forest, and that might help you. Just look for a purple lake and pour its water over the affected people."

She probably knew that because it's been happening all over town.

"Who says I'll help them," said the ginger haired boy.

"And who says we'll let him come along," Lucy said.

"Loke, this might help you as well," Mira said sternly. "Your crippling depression is affecting the rest of us. This is the perfect opportunity for you to cheer up."

Levy was sweat dropping. She was about to be sent into the dangerous forest with her arguing friend and some stranger suffering from crippling depression. To top it off, it seemed the barmaid wouldn't let this slide.

"This is no time for letting your pride and hatred get in the way," Mira said with a demonic voice and face. "I'm sure your friends are waiting for you to save them, and this may be an important experience." She pushed them out the door.

"Alright," Mira said, pulling out her phone. "So, how did I do?"

"Badly. You were pretty obvious," Mavis said. "There's a 75% failure rate."

"But there's a 25% success rate," Mira pointed out.

"Actually, the desired possibility would only have a 10% success rate. Also, you're in public, so you've increased the rate of failure by 5%."

Mira clenched her teeth as she walked back behind the bar counter.

"You're right. We _are_ in public," she said as she hung up.

 _I wish I could help them, but my power's gone._

"I'm going home," Loke said, turning around.

"We don't want you here anyways!" Lucy yelled.

All of this was really irritating Levy. They were standing in front of the door, arguing for ten minutes, and just annoying the heck out of her.

"Alright! We all have our reasons, so let's just go to the d*mn forest together!" Levy yelled, dragging both of them by the neck. Neither of them objected.

 _What am I doing with my life?_

Shadows swirled. In spirals, they went around and around, as endless of a cycle as the cycle of life. Spinning, some tried to turn. Left and right they went, but soon, they all ended up back in the cycle.

 _The cycle I can never return too._

"Just this once," said the boy as he flicked his wand. A bright light engulfed the entire town as he ran to his escape.

 _Just this once. Even if the world- if Natsu- still doesn't accept me._

Soon the light disappeared, and the former objects throughout the town had returned to unconscious people.

"Mavis, do you know what I'm thinking?" Mira asked her electronic device.

"Gee, you're asking uncharacteristic questions," Mavis said.

"No; this is my way of attempting to accept that this could end up _very_ badly."

 **An: Mwafwafwafwaha, cliffhanger. And what's this? A wand! Why does the boy have a wand? Who is the boy? And what will happen to everyone? Humans and creatures, this is the first chapter of the first arc.**


	5. Within The Heart

**An: Love fight scenes? This chapter starts the action, but still the daily dose of goofy! By the way, I notice you've been reviewing a lot Sabastu, so it's an extended chapter for you! (Trust me, this was really difficult; I had to interrupt my anime binge watching spree)**

 _A girl. She happened to look pretty, at least more so then usual, as she skipped along the path in her merry way. She noticed that the three of them were playing as one watched from afar, irked yet annoyed by everyone's childish behavior. With a shy smile and a light blush, the girl watched them play, not noticing that one of them happened to look straight at her._

"What happened?"

As Jellal asked this, he was met with blank stares.

"No one knows," Erza said. "We- the victims- woke up with every last bit of our memory gone from our encroached minds."

"Seriously, this melodrama," Gray muttered under his breath.

"I feel like I have a hangover!" Natsu exclaimed.

"Definitely," Gray said, nodding in agreement.

A hangover…. what… was that?

"Stop screaming, Natsu. You're giving us all a headache," Erza said, rubbing her temples.

"Um, what exactly is a hangover?"

Natsu and Gray started laughing at him as Erza excused herself to go throw up next to a tree (though it was obvious she was also laughing).

"Jellal's a wussy! Jellal's a wussy!" Happy exclaimed. "Even I had alcohol and I'm 6!"

"Headache!" Natsu and Gray yelled, leaping towards a nearby tree.

"I never said I didn't have alcohol," Jellal said carefully.

"He never had alcohol," Erza said. Gray and Natsu nodded as Happy threw up.

Was he really that easy to read?

"My fish is being vomited," Happy cried. "And where's Lushi?"

At that second, the entire group had a strange, author narrated flashback moment.

"TO THE CITY IT IS!"

"We should split up," Erza said. "Natsu and Happy search by air. I take left section. Jellal takes center section. Gray takes right. We can signal each other by these emergency pins." She handed out some emergency pins.

No one wasted time running to their search area.

"I haven't seen city people in a long time," Gray said as he slowly inched towards a building. He took a deep breath. Must remain calm.

With the last of his strength, he opened the door.

"Ho, ho! Glasses up! The stripper is here!" shouted a bald guy with a large mustache and beady eyes.

"I never wanted to come over here!" cried a green haired boy as a helmet wearing boy replied

"Sure you did! Seemed practical since you're gay for Laxus."

"Wait, where am I?" Gray asked.

"Hurry up, stripper!" yelled an unimportant crowd member.

"I'm NOT a stripper," Gray said, offended.

"Yeah? Then why don't you have clothes on?"

"I just have a stripping habit. Anyways, have any of you seen a blonde girl? About 5 feet (152 cm), brown eyes, white skin, big chest?"

"Girl? There's a girl in here? OMG, get the repellant!" yelled the bald guy.

"Boss, how about we exorcise her?"

"Dummy, if we exorcise her then more will come. They're like a swarm!"

"Ok, just where am I? Seriously?" Gray asked. He had deducted they did not see Lucy.

"You're in Heaven," explained the bald guy.

"Which is in actuality a sexist gay strip club and bar," said the green haired guy.

"Alright, I'm just gonna go now and-" The bald guy blocked Gray's way.

"Where do you think you're going, cutie?"

"Oh," Gray said, _really_ scared. "Where are my manners? I'm Gray. I'll be going now."

"Gray. What a lovely name. Almost as lovely as you."

At that moment, Gray shrieked in horror and ran away as fast as possible.

"Did he run away because he thought he was going to get r*ped or because he's scared of LGBT?" Bixlow, or helmet guy, asked.

"Well, if he wasn't afraid of LGBT, I'm sure he was traumatized enough to be afraid of them now."

"Sure, but there are heterosexual r*pers too, so everything's even."

"Yes. They're people too. There's nothing wrong with any relationship as long as it has love."

"Why are we acting ooc again?"

"Technically, we're not. If you and I were to ever have a serious discussion, we would actually talk like this."

"Ha, Gray's screamin like a r*pe victim!" Natsu said (quiet accurately). "Gray, ya stripper, what scared the sh*t out of your pants?!"

"DON'T EVER CALL ME A STRIPPER AGAIN!" Gray yelled.

"Alright, stripper! Stripper! Stripper! Stripper! STRIPPER!"

"D*mn you, Natsu!"

"Right back at cha, STRIPPER!"

It was at that moment that Natsu bumped into a building and crashed, unfortunately stuck. But fortunately, he saw Happy.

"Happy buddy!"

"Natsu! I'll save you!" Happy yelled. However, he saw a winged fish. "Later!" as Happy flew after the fish, he crashed into a building. "No! I'm stuck!"

"This is karma fer defying the saying 'bros before hoes'!"

Erza silently stared at the building before making her decision. She took a deep breath. This was the only way she could tell the buildings apart, and it was only a little damage. It was for the greater good anyways.

"Re-equip, plight armor!"

Erza punched the door of the first store open.

"Have you seen a blonde female?" All the people who weren't gaping with their mouth open nodded and pointed right.

Alright. So this was easy. If one of the places had a broken door, then she'd know that she's already been there.

 **125 doors later**

"Ouch, what in the-"

"Jellal, why are you in the middle section?"

"Because I finished early," Jellal replied. "Why are you vandalizing the town?"

"I knew I was breaking a law." Erza started to sulk. "To have stooped so low as vandalizing. Please provide retribution."

Jellal had no idea what retribution was, but for some reason, he wanted to appear smart.

"I, uh, can't because I'm busy talking to this barmaid about Lucy's location."

"It's been a while, Erza," waved the barmaid.

"You too, Mira," Erza replied.

"You two know each other?!" Jellal exclaimed.

"Yes. She's a fellow Fairy Tail member." Erza pressed her signal. "We've known each other for a long time. Now, what information do you have on Lucy?"

"I can inform you that if you don't go to the forest and search for her, she may be in serious trouble," Mira said.

Okay, everything was just messy and groggy and… headachey. Was that even a word? Whatever, who cared.

Gajeel's massive headache resumed as he stumbled around in the forest. His vision wasn't very clear, but he sort of saw some yellow, orange, and blue blobs. He really didn't care as he threw up on them.

"Ew!" he heard someone yelling.

Meanwhile, Zeref was in the middle of one of his mysterious escape sessions (which was, in reality, just him releasing a smoke screen and running the heck out of there) when he suddenly bumped into a black haired male.

 _There wasn't supposed to be anyone else in the forest._

"You just threw up on me!" Levy yelled. That was gross.

Gajeel promptly responded by throwing up some more.

Zeref decided to throw another smoke bomb, but he realized that he just made a big mistake.

That wasn't a smoke bomb. It was a link bomb.

 _Sh*t._

Levy and Gajeel suddenly felt an extreme amount of pain, and Levy almost collapsed.

"Levy-chan!" Lucy yelled. "Loke, help me up!"

"Everyone will die someday," Loke said uselessly.

"D*mn you, Loke," Lucy muttered through gritted teeth. Zeref took this chance to run out of there.

"Don mes with me or you'll be sorry," Gajeel said as he stomped away. (His speech has spelling errors.)

"No, _you'll_ be sorry!" Levy yelled weakly.

"We have to find that antidote," Lucy said. "We don't have time for this."

"I say we give up and walk back to the village," Loke said. He had his doubts that they were going to find it in this huge forest.

And, _it_ could happen at any moment.

"I can't believe you," Lucy said. "They're our friends! You can't betray friends!"

"You can't trust a celestial mage," Loke said.

"Okay, what is a celestial mage?" Lucy asked, frustrated. "As long as I remember, I've never had magic."

There was a solemn silence, and Levy suddenly felt guilty. She wanted to tell Lucy, she really did, but she wasn't even sure that celestial mages existed. Lucy had this strong, ancient vibe about her that honestly scared Levy. Not like she was scared of Lucy, but that vibe gave her a horrible, dreaded feeling that everything in time was crumbling down. Then again, maybe she was over thinking this.

"Lu-chan, you are a mage," Levy said. "I can sense that you have magic power. But, I'm sure why you don't realize it."

"A celestial mage is a holder type mage. Using special keys, they summon magical creatures called spirits to fight and perform tasks for them," Loke said.

He was surprised that Lucy knew nothing about celestial mages, or her magic type, or that she had magic in general. It kind of made him feel guilty for constantly ignoring her and annoying her. Still, they had to get out of the forest because it can happen at any minute.

"There's a key in your bag. It's a celestial key. Pull it out and try saying _Open, Gate of the water bearer, Aquarius._ "

"Okay," Lucy said, though she felt completely stupid. "Open, Gate of the water bearer, Aquarius!"

Suddenly, it felt like a billion bolts of lightning surged through out her body, giving her an exhilarating, _powerful_ feeling. Then it was gone.

"Nothing's happening," Levy whispered to Loke awkwardly.

Loke just remembered she had to dip the key in water.

"After you dip it in water."

Lucy tried again after dipping the key in a nearby puddle. She felt the same exhilarating lightning bolts.

Then she felt most of her energy leave her.

"YOU SUMMON ME **400** YEARS LATER AND IT'S IN A _PUDDLE_?!" Aquarius shrieked. Lucy, who was exhausted, really didn't want to deal with an angry spirit right now. "I'M GONNA MAKE YOUR LIFE A LIVING HELL IF YOU DON'T GIVE ME A GOOD REASON NOT TO."

"Because I summoned you?" Lucy asked.

"WHAT KIND OF STUPID REASON IS THAT? YOU JUST INTERRUPTED MY DATE WITH MY BOYFRIEND!"

Lucy wondered if all spirits looked like mermaids. Then she tried to imagine Aquarius's boyfriend. He'd probably be very tall and muscle bound, and maybe have some sort of cool tattoo. When she tried to imagine a picture of it in her mind, however, all that came up was an image of a wing fish.

"Do you know anything about the antidote in the forest?" Lucy asked.

"If you want to find the antidote, WHY DON'T YOU JUST LOOK OVER THERE?!" Aquarius yelled. There was a stereotypical glowing lake filled with bright pink liquid… guarded by about a million spiky _creatures_.

"Can you make us a path?" Lucy asked. Now Aquarius was really ticked. She was in the a middle of a date. DID NO ONE TEACH THIS GIRL DIGNIFIED MANNERS?! Oh, and she just remembered she had Wednesdays off.

"You know, our contract says I can leave right now, so bye." She disappeared in a glow of light.

It was at that moment that Lucy realized all celestial spirits are *ssholes.

"Looks like we're going to have to fight," Levy said, but she realized that was easier said than done. Those spiky things looked _really_ durable.

"I'll just fight with a horse whip," Lucy said, pulling out her whip. After seeing Loke, she guessed her mind mentally prepared her for this. Loke, in the meanwhile, was still attempting to figure this out.

Her celestial magic obviously wasn't sealed, since she could use it. It wasn't hidden either because he definitely felt it. It wasn't like she didn't know about spirits before, because she was able to make a contract… and yet she didn't even know what celestial magic was.

Karin. Of course, how can he forget? He was so distracted trying to figure out Lucy's predicament that he forgot about it.

No, he could never forget.

Levy pulled out the wand in her pocket and started chanting.

"Solid script: Fire."

The fire sported quite the grand entrance, but it wasn't exactly useful for its purpose. Levy unceremoniously flopped onto the ground at her uselessness in this situation.

"Levy-chan, I know this might not help, but did you wash your wand? From some stories I read, wands really like that. Maybe it's mad at you?" Lucy suggested, though the entire thing sounded insanely dumb in her head. Then again, what did she know? She was literally hundreds of years behind the modern era.

Loke pitied her. Cloaks are, like, so last season.

"Wands are actually regular pieces of wood used for multiple object conjuration techniques. They're like catalysts that speed up the reaction of magic power's transformation into objects since that takes an insanely amount of time if someone's body is not used to summoning. This doesn't affect maker mages or elementalists because they only have one element, which makes it easy for their body to get used to it."

How embarrassing. And doesn't soap and water corrode wood? Lucy wanted to die.

"Let me try with my horse whip," Lucy said as she pulled out a whip and struck one of the spiky things. And the idiot countdown was 3, 2, 1…

Oh, it actually broke. And so did all of its little friends.

"T-those poor horses," Levy muttered.

Oh well. At least now, they can reach the elixir lake…

Rain started pouring down.

" _Drip, drip, drop._ Rival wasn't supposed to get out so easily," said a blue haired girl. "Rival needs to return to confinement."

"Confinement?!" Levy exclaimed. "I don't think I was-"

"Water lock."

It wasn't Levy who was confined in the water lock but instead Lucy.

She could have sworn this girl had a flash of recognition in her eyes when she saw Lucy.

"Do I know you?" Lucy asked.

"Juvia will not waste time with unnecessary questions. Juvia will wait until Gajeel-san arrives. Rival-san's friends are free to leave."

"Lu-chan's a friend. I refuse to leave her!" Levy exclaimed. "Solid script: Fire!" She blasted a beam of fire at Juvia, which once again had no effect.

"Juvia is water. Water can quench fire, but fire can never quench water."

"It's called evaporation!"

Juvia gave her a cold, emotionless stare.

"If the water evaporates, it turns into mist and deprives fire of its oxygen, thus quenching it. The fire is gone, and the water lives on as air."

"Solid script: Lightning!" A beam of lightning shot at Juvia, but she created a rod of water and directed it at the ground.

"Juvia is warning Rival-san's friends: Juvia may be lenient but Gajeel-san will kill you all. Escape while you still can."

"NO! Lu-chan's -" Levy immediately felt a sharp pain. An unbearable, sharp, pain.

An iron rod had just stabbed her and pinned her body to a tree.

"You talk too much," Grumbled Gajeel. He was getting bored of all these people who kept talking high and mighty. "Pathetic."

"Gajeel-san took a considerable amount of time to get here," Juvia said. "Is he getting rusty?"

"No. Made a d*mn rookie mistake. Got caught in my own trap."

"So Gajeel-san _is_ getting rusty," Juvia said. "Juvia guesses he'll need to speak to Jose after this mission."

"There was another one of em," Gajeel said. "Where'd _he_ go?"

"Juvia let him run away," Juvia said.

"Despicable."

Gajeel hated those types the most. Those who ran away. Those who abandoned their comrades. It was a horrible act. It sickened and disgusted him.

It was unforgivable.

"Juvia thinks he made a wise decision," Juvia said as she read Gajeel's facial expression. "He would have died."

"That kid's gonna die anyways," Gajeel said, cracking his knuckles. "Seems like the perfect training target." He and Juvia started to walk towards their temporary base.

 _It's just not fair._

Levy tried to speak. She opened and closed her mouth, over and over again. She tried to find her voice. Maybe vocal warm-ups would work?

Yeah, right. She was kidding herself.

It's not like she ever had a voice.

Each day Levy would silently read her book, dreaming for adventure. For once, she wanted to be the brave heroine who fought against the dragon. For once, she wanted to be the great protagonist who lifts everyone's spell.

For once, she wanted to save everyone.

Levy read those books over and over again. They always made her believe she can do anything. She even deluded herself into believing she was different for everyone. That they were bad and she was not because she always spoke about how they should fight for justice.

Some things are easier said than done.

Then, when Jet and Droy were frozen, she felt the unfairness.

She couldn't do anything as they came into her house and question her. She couldn't do anything as they were about to shoot that beam at her.

She couldn't do anything as they both jumped in front of her to protect her.

Then, Levy met Lucy, and was immediately drawn to her.

A beautiful girl with a happy feeling. A feeling of great adventure.

Lucy was proud of who she was, no matter what anyone else said. She was confident in herself. She wasn't afraid to give up who she was no matter who she faced. Levy even felt safe around Lucy, like she'd known her. Not exactly the first person to help others out, but always by everyone's side. Lucy made her want to be more confident too.

And that's exactly why, even though she'd known Lucy for such a short time (like, literally about a day), she refused to give her friend up.

"Hey! Metal face! It's lame to attack someone when their back's turned! Come fight me for real!" Levy yelled (sounds awfully Natsu-like, doesn't it?).

"What did ya say?" Grumbled Gajeel.

"I said fight me!"

Levy knew she didn't have enough strength to fight against Gajeel, but she wasn't going to waste her intelligence. Against someone so stupid… she could easily turn the tables in her favor.

After all, he did make a rookie mistake.

"After I'm done with you, won't be able to move anymore," Gajeel said with a hint of admiration in his voice. It wasn't every day that he meets an opponent that refuses to give up for their friends.

He pulled the iron rods out from her arms.

"Same goes to you," Levy said. A lie, but she'll have to make it work for now. "Solid script: Fire!"

"Che. I'm an Iron dragon slayer. I expect people to use fire attacks against me," Gajeel said as he dodged the attack.

Obviously, but there was another level to this plan.

"Looks like you were prepared for that. I'd better try something more creative."

"Iron dragon ROAR!" Gajeel yelled.

"Solid script: Shield!"

That was a risky move. It used up a lot of magic power. Looks like she'll have to stick to dodging since she didn't have enough power to waste on defense.

"Iron dragon's lance!" Levy started running around Gajeel in dizzying circles, though she had to be careful about her speed.

Gajeel's lance arms were in front and behind her.

"Solid script: Fire!" Levy yelled, blasting fire at Gajeel. The attack left him with an opening.

Distractions were amazing little things.

While the Gajeel was preoccupied with the fire that hurt his face, Levy jumped up, hoping that her petite body would let her do a perfect land.

Unfortunately, due to his fast reflexes, Gajeel noticed her, aiming both his lances at her.

Looks like she was going to need another strategy.

"Solid script: Anvil." Levy decided to go with some minor physical damage, but she still had to dodge the lances, which would be difficult seeing as she was in the air.

But, she still had a chance.

Levy threw the most important part of her plan, the tracker, before she reached for a tree and jumped down. Then she started running.

"Yer running away?" Gajeel yelled.

"It's pointless if I can't save Lucy!"

And that was all true. Except that she wasn't running away; she was getting backup. With her solid script, she created a tracker and hoped Gajeel wouldn't notice it as she attempted to attach it to him various times.

Sucker…

Now Levy just had to wait and see how long she can keep this up. 10 points if she could make it to the edge of the forest.

"Tch," Gajeel said. "I'll let that one slide. She has skills." And something in his stomach told him not to.

Somehow, after Natsu and Happy managed to miraculously free each other from their buildings (that just sounds _weird_ ), they rushed over to the signal designated place, where an impatient Erza was waiting for them.

"Every second we waste could amount to anything," Erza explained harshly.

Natsu noticed Gray was staying rather far away from the group, being in a more female populated area. He was still listening intently though.

What the hell? Did Gray just turn into a play boy or something? (Loke, wherever he was, sneezed).

Jellal was looking worried as he furiously scribbled something down, listening to a girl who sounded familiar. Natsu took a look at her face and he knew why.

"L-Lissana?"

Happy immediately perked up at the mention of the name.

"Do you two know each other?" Erza asked, looking back and forth between the two. It was silent for a moment before Mirajane answered with a fake smile.

"No. I think he mistook me for my sister. It happens a lot." With her eyes still closed from the smiled, she continued, "Lissana is already dead."

 _I wish I was more useful._

"Oh yeah, guess her brother Elfman told me," Natsu said, trying not to cry. "You must be her sister, Mary June or something."

 _Because I may have been able to save her._

"It's Mira Jane, actually."

 _And protect the people I care about._

"I know how _that_ feels like," Jellal said. His voice had a tinge of sadness too.

"Remember, the present is what's most important. You've written down all the information, right?" Erza asked to Jellal. It seemed like she was trying to lighten the mood in her own special way.

"Yeah. Fairy Tail seems to have taken out the majority of the Phantom Lord members; there's only six left. The rest are either dead or have quit. Unfortunately, the remaining members are extremely strong, and they've taken out quite a lot of Fairy Tail members."

"Are Alzack and Bisca alright?" Erza asked.

"They're fine and so is most of the people you and I know. Unfortunately, team 13, 26, and 89 are dead and two people on team 67 and one on 8 are severely injured. We've suffered less casualties then Phantom Lord, though," Mira said.

"Team eight? That's Elfman's team!"

"Elfman's alright, don't worry. He just has a broken leg," Mira said.

Everyone but Erza had to flinch at how casual that sounded.

"So, anyways," Jellal continued. "There are two paired teams, each one for capture. Team one is Juvia and Gajeel. Juvia captures and Gajeel attacks. Team two is Sol, the defender, and Totomaru, the attacker. Phantom Lord is led by Jose."

"You mentioned earlier that there were 6 people," Erza pointed out. Mira smiled brightly (violently).

"You remember such a minor detail from when Jellal was talking but couldn't remember all the information I relayed."

"That was because you were talking too quietly," Erza said. "It was a good thing Jellal noticed and decided to write it all down. Anyways, who is the sixth person?"

"We don't have any data on him, apparently," Jellal said. "But the majority of the casualties were caused by him. In fact, no one has seen his face and lived."

"Maybe he's already dead," Gray offered.

"No," Erza said. "I'm sure he's still alive. The battle was very recent."

"I'm confused," Happy said. "If no one saw his face, how do we know it was him? It could be a bunch of people pretending to be one."

"Happy's got a point," Gray said. Happy proudly puffed up his chest, glad that he was able to incorporate his lifelong knowledge into this conversation.

Sources: Years of catching fish.

"Well then we'll just have to figure it out. We need to think of a strategy, since brute force most likely won't work."

"Logically, that's true, but also, according to this graph (Mira was amazed Jellal actually put her information into an organized pie chart), 100% of the people who died were on offense. The two teams with survivors were infiltrators."

"So fighting head on means you die," Gray said.

"Pretty much."

"But what strategy are we going to use? Phantom Lord's on guard because of the infiltration mission," Happy pointed out.

"Happy the dream crusher. Just when we have hope, you point out a flaw," Gray said.

"No! Is that what I truly am?!" Happy started to sulk. "Could it be that I'm not one of my namesake? Could it be that I'm one to make others _sad_?"

Erza patted Happy on the head. He was just being realistic. If Happy hadn't pointed things like that out, they might have been doomed.

"We could just try following them until we find a weakness."

"All this strategizing is useless," Natsu said. "S'like we're doing nothin while they're moving forward."

*Beep*

"It looks like I received a message," Mirajane said, surprised. She showed Erza the message.

"I received the same one," Erza said, holding up her phone. "But the address is hidden."

"What does it say?" Jellal asked, flipping his page to write more.

"When you enter the forest, turn west by 120 feet, go north until you see shattered glass, and continue following the glass. You'll understand everything when you reach the destination."

"C'mon, let's go then," Natsu said, impatient.

"Flame brain, have you ever heard of traps?" Gray asked.

"Ice face, imma beat the cr*p out of the trap."

"Maybe it's the same message from different people," Jellal said, ignoring the conversation from behind him.

"Did you check the address?" Erza asked Mira.

"No, I only glanced over it," Mira said.

"Then could it be someone familiar?"

Mira read the address before she immediately dropped her phone.

"Mira?" Erza asked.

Natsu and Gray stopped fighting as everyone stared at Mira.

"Whoops! Silly mistake!" Mira said. "I accidentally read it wrong and thought it was something else."

"May I see the address?" Erza asked.

"Sorry, while I dropped my phone, my thumb accidentally pressed the delete all button."

Erza looked at the phone, and sure enough, it was completely clear.

"Do you know about any sort of weaponry store nearby?" Jellal asked.

"Sorry; all weaponry shops were shut down after Phantom Lord installed surveillance. They don't care if you talk bad about them, but if they overhear any information against them or useful to them, they'll find you and have a chat."

"Does that mean Phantom Lord's been listening to our conversation this entire time?!" Happy exclaimed.

Erza stared coldly at him.

"Don't worry. Phantom Lord's used to seeing newcomers learn about the surveillance situation."

"I'm guessing this is why you were talking in a quiet voice," Erza said.

"Yes. The record cam shifts positions, and it just happened to shift towards me while I was talking. I intentionally drew out the information so that none of you can talk and then waited for it to move to another place where the ambient noise would mute the conversation. Even if someone were to shout loudly, Phantom Lord most likely wouldn't have been able to follow the conversation."

"You know that was risky. It could have gone haywire or backfire in a second," Erza said.

"Well, it's better to take a risk than do nothing at all," Mira said. "So, opinion wise, you should go to the location."

"I understand. We most likely don't have any other options at the moment and time is racing against us. Looks like we'll follow the instructions on the message," Erza said as she went towards the door and opened it.

 _Clearing the message… Mirajane, that was no accident._

Levy blinked.

Strangers blinked.

Levy blinked.

Strangers blinked.

Levy-

"Let's stop with the endless blinking cycle and start with the questions," Jellal said, pulling out a notepad.

"Jellal appears to have become attached to that notepad," Erza… explained?

"Who _are_ you people?" Levy asked.

"Have ya seen Luce?" Natsu asked.

"Do you mean _Lu-chan_?"

"Yeah, _Luce._ "

"Well, a few minutes ago, _Lu-chan_ got kidnapped."

"Where did they take _Luce?"_

"I have a tracker that might help find _Lu-chan_."

"Does anyone else feel the competitive vibes?" Jellal asked.

"Let things in the 5 dimensional world remain in the 5 dimensional world."

"Wait," Levy said. "How do I know I can trust you guys?"

"How do we know _you're_ not form Phantom Lord?" Jellal asked, a little impatient.

"Valid point."

"So, where does your tracker say Lucy is?" Erza asked intimidatingly.

"I-I'm not sure. I was tracking Gajeel. But, right after I put the tracker on, it seems like he probably dropped it or something because he detected it. It hasn't moved this entire time except for a little at the beginning."

"That's a clue," Gray said.

"So where's the _location_?" Natsu asked.

"Apparently, it's exactly 2 miles (3218.69 meters) north of here," Levy said.

"Thank you for the information. Stranger, I shall ask Jellal to accompany you back to the hospital. Your wounds are immensely severe, and no matter how much magic you use, you cannot completely heal wounds, so be careful," Erza said.

"Well, thanks, and I guess I should fix my wounds quickly before I run out of magic," Levy said. "By the way, which one's Jellal?"

"Hello," Jellal said waving.

"She is using Solid Script to block her wounds with fake skin," Erza whispered to Jellal. "It's miraculous that she can stand."

Jellal jolted up a bit. Erza was _really_ close to him just now. And she was next to his ear and…

Stupid teenage hormones.

"He _loves~_ her," Happy said, feeling obliged to give his own sort of reply to Levy's uneasy look.

"Reall-"

"NO! I don't like you or anything!" Jellal yelped, covering his mildly (extremely) red face.

"He totally likes her," Gray muttered.

"So I've noticed," Levy said.

"Just don't see it," Natsu muttered.

"Oh, I thought we were good friends," Erza said disappointedly. "I don't know what I did to make you dislike me."

"Brick wall-chan is brutal, don't you think?" Levy asked the others as the rest of the group watched Jellal sulk in a corner.

"Still don't see it," Natsu muttered.

"You're going to make an infatuated girl very unhappy one day," Levy said.

"Like hell any girl would be infatuated with flame brain," Gray muttered.

"What'd you say ice bastard?" Natsu growled.

"Everyone's ignoring me!" Happy muttered to himself.

"We have no time to waste. Let's go to our destinations, and tell me about any clues you've discovered at the location so I can write it down," Jellal said, finally finished sulking.

"Alright. We'll contact each other. I have a phone and you can talk to me through Mira," Erza said. They waved to each other before Jellal let Levy lean on his shoulders a little and they walked off towards the infirmary.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm useless," Jellal muttered. "Here I am, helping a wounded stranger to the infirmary when I could be investigating with the others."

"Well _excuse_ me for making you feel useless," Levy muttered.

She knew it was really strange for her to just let a stranger help her to the infirmary, but she felt the same sort of vibes that Lucy gave off with all of them.

It was a little bit different. Not exactly like Lucy's, and each one of them felt different to her, but somehow they were all the same. Welcomeness? No, wait, it's actually…

Friendship. Yeah, that's it.

Somehow, it felt kind of good to have friends who weren't infatuated with you (don't get her wrong, Jet and Droy are awesome). Friends who you could have casual conversations with.

Levy reveled in the warm feeling of friendship.

" _Feelings?_ "

"Yah! Don't you think they're cool?" asked a blonde haired, blue eyed male. "Maybe I'll write an article on them! And ask them some questions! Cool!"

" _You can't expect to ask me about feelings. I can't tell you about things that I lack._ "

"Cool? And kinda creepy…"

" _However, if it's their feelings that you want to know about, I'll gladly tell you."_

"Huh?"

" _This on_ e _goes by the name of Erza. Her nature is concealed, but her name holds especial value for her. She's developed a brick wall and is unaware of many things despite her sharp senses._

" _The boy with raven hair holds a deep regret in his life. He'd pay any price to fix that regret. A wonderful weapon on the outside… easily breakable on the inside. If I were to follow my goals, he'd need to be eliminated._

" _The blue haired male is dealing with insecurities as of recently. He's attempting to deal with more things than he can handle. If he recovers, he will be strong, but if he is struck down quickly, he will never recover again._

" _The cat is as carefree as ever. I think at this point, he's even desperately clinging to it. He'll have a hard time coping without that freedom._

"… _.._

" _And this one… this pink haired one… there isn't a need to bother with him. I'm sure he's doing it on purpose. Turning every single emotion into a lie. He's quite a cunning man to ruin his own mind so successfully, and he's able to deceive himself just as well as he deceives the others. If I were to ever feel the emotion 'hatred', it would be towards him."_

"Ok, scary. Not cool. You're not hired," Jason said, dismissing the mysterious person.

" _Being hired was never my intention. I only came to serve my purpose, which has been served quiet successfully."_

The person stopped short of the door, hands on the handle to open it.

" _Oh, and I'm sure the citizens wouldn't enjoy reading an article about people who wrecked havoc upon their town."_

The lights flickered, the world was getting darker, and everything was getting blurred. The last thing Jason saw before he collapsed was a crystal ball.

" _Warning_ ," Loke muttered, staring into a cylindrical sphere. " _Objects in the mirror may look closer than they appear._ "

 _K_ **a** _r_ **i** _n._

 **An: I sounded like I was on crack. Anyways, there's going to be a lot of foreshadowing and character development, and at some point, it won't be as goofy as it will be dark, but goofiness will never be gone forever (you're reeeallly gonna want that goofiness at one of the later parts).**


End file.
